Re: Gaps in the field of IDU and the PLHAs services in Chennai

[Guest guest]

Dear Forum

The points raised by Mr. Varadhan are very pertinent ones. Though some steps

have been taken by NACO and other organisations including NGOs, what is being

done is still far from adequate.

Indeed IDUs, as a group, are at a much higher risk of acquiring HIV and other

infections and hence should receive priority for interventions. More

importantly, the risk faced by non-injecting drug and alcohol users has not

received adequate attention so far.

Some encouraging initiatives have been taken in this regard. Mr. Vardhan has

rightly pointed out that ex-users ('recovering drug users') could be used to

reach out to current drug users and thus services could be effectively provided.

UNODC has initiated a 'Peer Led Intervention' which uses the same approach i.e.

using recovering drug users as peer educators to reach out to current users and

then providing education raining and other services.

Brief findings from one of their projects could be seen at UNODC India website:

http://www.unodc.org/india/sa_impact_pli.html

A similar project is currently underway where the 'Peer Led Intervention' design

is being used at about 300 sites across the country. The project is being

implemented by the 'Society for Promotion of Youth and Masses' and 100s of its

partner NGOs under support from DFID (UK).

So something is being done. But clearly, this may not be enough.

These initiatives need to be scaled-up and should be converted now from a

'project' to a 'programme' mode (i.e. wide in scope, ongoing, long-term and

sustainable). It will happen only when findings and lessons-learned from these

projects are used to formulate national programmes and policies.

--

Dr. Atul Ambekar, M.D.

Assistant Professor

National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre and Department of Psychiatry

All India Institute of Medical Sciences,

Ansari Nagar,

New Delhi India - 110029

Phone (O): 91-11-26593236

Phone ®: 91-11-26105757

Mobile: (+91) 9811155682

Fax: 91-11-26588641, 91-11-26588663

Email: atul.ambekar@...

Website:

http://www.aiims.ac.in/aiims/departments/spcenter/nddtc/nddc_intro.htm